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Albuquerque jury: Vargas not guilty of aiding Michael Paul Astorga

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Friday, January 25, 2008

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Nestor Vargas

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Kathy Ortiz wiped away tears moments after a jury acquitted her boyfriend of helping homicide suspect Michael Paul Astorga flee one of the biggest manhunts in state history.

"Everything's back to normal," Ortiz said.

Or so she hopes.

She acknowledged, though, that after enduring what she termed an emotional and terrorizing ordeal that began when Astorga showed up at their Rio Rancho home one morning in March 2006, it's going to take time to find their way back to normal.

"You don't know what we've been through," she said.

Jurors took less than three hours Thursday to find Nestor Vargas, 37, not guilty of harboring or aiding a felon — a verdict that seemed to stun everyone in the Albuquerque courtroom, including Vargas.

"I just didn't know what the jurors would think," said Vargas, a gold cross on his lapel. "But I just felt that I didn't do anything wrong."

Prosecutor Troy Davis argued over the two-day trial that Vargas helped Astorga escape the tightening dragnet in the hours after Bernalillo County sheriff's Deputy James McGrane Jr. was shot and killed during a traffic stop in the East Mountains.

Vargas and Astorga had met each other in prison. Davis said Vargas allowed Astorga, Astorga's wife and Martin Saiz into the Rio Rancho home he shared with Ortiz and their two young sons.

Once Astorga's wife and Saiz left, Vargas allowed Astorga to use his restroom, gave Astorga about $120 of the money he owed for a Suburban that Astorga sold him, let him use his cell phone, gave him a sweater and drove him to a South Valley location where another ride was waiting.

Astorga was captured 13 days later in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.

Vargas never notified authorities of Astorga's visit, even after several days when sheriff's Capt. Darci Blaschke showed up at his door to follow up a tip that Astorga had been there.

But jurors apparently believed Vargas' attorney, Daniel Salazar, who said his client was only trying to protect his family from a dangerous man who eventually was listed on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted with the likes of Osama bin Laden.

"People in Albuquerque are still in fear because of this incident," Salazar said during closing arguments Thursday. "Nestor Vargas is entitled to that fear."

Vargas and Ortiz, speaking after the verdict, said they had been in great fear — but not just of Astorga.

Both said Bernalillo County sheriff's authorities badgered them, destroyed their home by smashing the walls and doors, tossed trash on their floors and in their bathtub and threatened to take their sons, now ages 4 and 11, into foster care.

"My home was destroyed from every corner of my house," Ortiz said. "They kept saying, `Give me what I want,' and I kept saying I couldn't because I didn't have anything."

What they wanted, she said, was a gun, apparently the one detectives believe Astorga used to kill McGrane minutes after midnight March 22, 2006.

No gun was found in the home. A charge of a felon in possession of a firearm against Vargas was dropped from the case before his trial began Wednesday.

Similar accusations of strong-arm tactics used by the Sheriff's Department were also lodged by Astorga's in-laws, Ricky and Cindy Poolaw, and their daughter Chara in a federal lawsuit.

Last September, a federal judge granted partial summary judgment in favor of the Poolaws, agreeing that the Sheriff's Department tactics violated the Poolaws' Fourth Amendment rights, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.

Sheriff's officials have said they did what they had to do to find Astorga, a man they believed was armed and dangerous and who they accused of killing one of their own.

Ortiz and Vargas said that besides the treatment they received from law enforcement agents, their neighbors have shunned them.

"They call the police on our sons just to be mean. Our kids can't even ride their bikes in peace," Vargas said. "We were the bad people."

Vargas said he never tried to hide his past, which included prison time for a robbery conviction and drug addiction.

"But I've left that life behind. I already had left that life when Mike showed up that day," Vargas said. "It wasn't fair to blame me for that."

Vargas said he never reported Astorga's whereabouts because he was concerned that his past would make it hard for authorities to believe him.

"I just didn't want to get involved because I knew something like this would happen," he said.

Vargas also refuted prosecutors' claim that he implicated Astorga in McGrane's death.

"Mike never told me anything about that," he said. "I don't think he did it."

Astorga's mother, Theresa Romero, who sat through the trial, hugged Vargas and Ortiz and rejoiced with them after learning of the verdict.

"This will change things for my son, too," she said.

The second man who came with Astorga to Vargas' house, Saiz, goes to trial next week in Albuquerque on charges similar to Vargas'.

"One down, two to go," Romero said.

For now, Vargas, who has been out of jail on bail since shortly after he was arrested, said he will be happy to be with his family.

"I just want to go back to providing for them, caring for them," he said. "Like normal."